You know, I was talking about the fact that KOA has been around for one hundred years. We're coming up on our hundredth birthday, and they have been woven into the part of Denver for that long. And another thing that has been woven into the part of Denver is the Fort Restaurant, even though.
Technically very outside Morrison.
But it's fine, we don't talk about that.
And the owner Turner mic on Aron, and the owner Holly Kinney is with me today to talk about one of their outstanding events that they put on with the Tosorrow Cultural Center, which is kind of is do you call it kind of an arm of.
The Fort or is the Fort an arm?
Well to Sorrow was created to celebrate all the cultures that traded at ben Sold Fort, and it's a five oh one C three. It's a nonprofit and I created it in nineteen ninety nine to really provide more education and more events that like our rendezvous coming up this weekend. But I have to give you a little trivia about me,
oh please. I started in radio on ko I used to sell time on KOA Radio out in nineteen seventy five and seventy six and seventy nine, when Elway was the quarterback for the Broncos and we went the Orange Crush.
Oh that's fantastic. I had no idea. I didn't know that about you.
So Koa has a special place in my heart.
Oh that's wonderful. That's a great story. I love that, Holly. So let's talk a little bit about the rendezvous and to the point you were just making this did you start? And I know we've talked about this before, but people don't always hear every interview. The Tsorial Cultural Center came out of sort of the intent that your father had when he built the fort in the first place, right the original.
In nineteen sixty two, we created a replica of Ben's old fort, which was a famous fur trading fort from eighteen thirty three to eighteen forty nine, and we started doing school tours because every teacher wanted to take their kids on.
A school tour to see the fort.
And we actually had a little museum in the building. We had to turn it into a restaurant to pay off the mortgage, but it turned out that the history was as important as the food. But then the food kind of took over. It became very famous because we are fine dining. And so when I joined my father in partnership in nineteen ninety nine, I said, well, let's get back to the school tours and educating the public,
which was what the building originally was designed for. And we created to Sorrow Cultural Center, and my dad called it Desorro because there are many amazing artists, like the Spanish colonial artists, the mountain men who hand make flintlock guns and who do it as works of art, and that is their treasures and their treasures to our society and to us. And let's use the fort's platform and market them and call it the Tesoro. The treasures mean it means treasures in Spanish.
Well, I can vouch for the food we ate there Saturday night with friends who had never eaten there. And the patio, Oh, hollie, the patio is glorious.
It is gorgeous out there.
You just have this incredible view of Denver in the distance. It is stunning, and the magical is second to nine. So let's talk about what's happening this weekend. One of the things that is so cool about what you're doing is for people who either don't know themselves a lot about Native American culture, or maybe you want your kids
to have a better understanding of Native American culture. The rendezvous is even I think better than the powwow for kind of getting a feel for more about the culture, not just dancing and things of that nature.
Well, it's a mix of cultures.
You have the traders and trappers who were trading at Bensfort, and re enactors and interpreters, and then you also have the Spanish colonial artists because Ben's Sport was on the border of Old Mexico, which at that time was the Arkansas River. So you had the Spanish colonial artists who hand carved the saints, and they are they're demonstrating their carving and there just as they did hundreds of years
ago at the same time of Ben's Sport. And then we have a scavenger hunt for kids, so they have they're given a sheet of paper admission, and then they go round to each artist and mountain man encampment and ask the question that's on the piece of paper and if and they're given a string of sinew or like a string, and then they get the answer from the artist or the blacksmith or whatever, and they are given.
A trade bead.
But each encampmen they collect a trade bead after hearing the answer and understanding the answer. So they stay there for our with their parents following behind them, and they collect their trade beads by asking the questions, and they learn all about how did they make the dye from rocks and through kochiel, which is like an insect that's bright red, and how did they weave the wool and what type of wool did they weave and it's Churro
wool and the Truro sheep were brought from Spain. So it's a whole day of interactive learning.
It's like a living museum.
Yeah, it's really fun though, it's like an adventure. Yeah, and then we have also you get a trade beat if you go sit and listen to the Ricaramandan hadatsa tribe doing a dance and talking about the Indian tribes at vent Sport. But then you go to the blacksmiths and learn there and so it's really a great family of event and it's an adventure and fun and it's interactive.
Holly Kenney is my guest, and this is all happening this weekend. There are you can buy your tickets. I've got the link online with all the information. How much your tickets it's a very modest dollars, yeah.
And then five dollars for kids six and older and six and or five and under are free.
Okay. And to be clear, Holly doesn't do this to make money at all.
I donate my time for twenty five years.
Yeah, she doesn't.
This is not a money maker. So that ten dollars just gets plowed back into two to to Sorrow, Thank you to to Sorrow, and so it just perpetuates in the future.
Right, and helps cover the costs we have, you know, part of potties and other expenses related to it, just out of pocket expenses.
And can people get some fort food while they're.
There, Yes, the fort has concessions and we're doing Buffalo Burgers and Buffalo Broughts and a Freedo pie.
When you say concessions, like people think, you know, it's the concessions at a Fort event are like next level can sessions. Okay, They're not just your like hot dog hamburger. They're like they're Buffalo burgers and things of that nature. So it's happening. What's a timeframe on Saturday and Sunday ten to four most days, Saturday and Sunday. I think you're gonna have some crummy rain on Saturday, but hopefully it'll clear up on Saturday.
The dancing is under our patios, so it's undercovered, you know, wear a jacket.
But mountain men were never dissuaded by rain.
No and the Spanish artists are inside. There's and they'll do lectures going on. There's a great lecture about Henry Darringer trade rifle discovered it in Ben's Sport by Bill Gwaltney.
And that's in the Benz quarters.
So we have, you know, lectures and things going on inside. So there's a lot going on inside as well as outside encampments.
And as I said, I put a link to the website on the blog today if you want more information.
Holly Kenny, thank you so much. Thank you for everything that you do for.
You you would just bring so much opportunity to this area for people to really learn about Native Americans and the history of this part of the country.
It's just a really well done job. Thank you so much for inviting me. You're the best. You are